Staff at PIA's members grew more slowly, from 12000 to more than 14000, and more than half of the revenue came from exports, according to PIA.
EY's 16000 is Finland's share of an EY-Parthenon model of what happens if NATO's European members raise core defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035, a target Finland has also committed to. The model counts jobs at suppliers and from extra consumer spending as well as at defence companies, about 130000 across the Nordic countries. In its Nordic Defense Readiness report of 22 October 2026, based on interviews with 17 defence organisations, EY says the hardest part is getting people into the roles fast enough.
Finland's own plan reaches 3.22% of GDP for defence by 2030, using NATO's definition. PIA says that with strong exports the defence, aerospace and security industry could reach 40000 direct jobs by about 2030. A study by the industrial union Teollisuusliitto, published on 6 October 2026, assumes in its scenarios that only 25 to 30% of the additional defence money stays in Finland, because much of it goes to large purchases from foreign suppliers.
The established companies are winning new orders
Patria is the largest defence company in Finland. The state owns 50.1% of it and Norway's Kongsberg 49.9%, and in 2025 it had revenue of about €1.09 billion and about 4100 staff across the group. It makes armoured vehicles, and in August Norway agreed to buy 20 of its 6-wheeled vehicles under a joint vehicle programme with other European countries. Patria and Insta jointly own Millog, which has about 1250 staff and maintains the Finnish Defence Forces' equipment. Millog in turn owns Senop, a night-vision maker based in Kangasala.
Insta, owned by the Mattsson family, has about 1300 staff and builds command and control systems, the software military staff use to follow a situation and give orders. In September Insta said it had joined a new NATO cyber security framework. Bittium in Oulu, which makes tactical radios and secure phones, grew its group revenue from €85.2 million to €119.3 million in 2025. Saab's Finnish company works in Helsinki, Tampere and Turku and builds electronic warfare systems, which detect and disrupt radar and radio signals, as well as software for naval command.
Rauma Marine Constructions, a Finnish-owned shipyard on the west coast, began assembling the hull of the last of the Finnish Navy's 4 new corvettes, mid-sized warships, in the summer and also builds ferries and icebreakers. Sisu Auto in Raasepori, part-owned by the state investment company Tesi, makes heavy trucks and protected off-road vehicles and says more than 700 of its GTP model have been ordered. It expects its revenue to rise from €91 million in 2025 to €175 million this year. Smaller established firms are hiring too, among them DA-Group in Forssa, which makes test systems for electronic warfare and navigation products, and Navielektro in Kaarina, which builds maritime surveillance systems.
Investors are putting large sums into younger companies
In a study published in August 2026, Tesi identified 574 Finnish companies in the defence sector, including dual-use firms. About 200 of them are fast-growing defence or dual-use startups, and the largest clusters are in the Helsinki region, Tampere and Oulu. Asked what holds back their growth, most companies named slow procurement by their customers, ahead of financing. The largest of the younger companies is ICEYE in Espoo, which began as a spin-off from Aalto University's satellite programme and now builds and operates radar satellites that can take pictures of the ground through cloud and at night. It has more than 1000 staff, and in June the US investor General Atlantic led a €450 million investment that valued it at more than €10 billion. ReOrbit in Helsinki, founded in 2019, builds satellites for governments and raised €45 million in 2025 from investors led by Springvest. Kuva Space in Espoo runs small satellites that identify materials on the ground from the light they reflect, and in June its US company was added to NASA's commercial satellite data contract.
NestAI, founded by Peter Sarlin, who co-founded Silo AI and sold it to AMD, received €100 million from Nokia and Tesi in late 2025 to build AI for unmanned vehicles and command systems. Sensofusion in Vantaa, which protects critical infrastructure from unauthorised drones, secured €45 million in a funding round that included Lifeline Ventures, one of ICEYE's first investors, and in October listed its shares on Nasdaq Helsinki, raising about €259 million. IQM in Espoo, which builds quantum computers, raised about €275 million in September 2025 and has been listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York since July. Kelluu in Joensuu flies autonomous airships to collect aerial data and raised €15 million in April with the NATO Innovation Fund as lead investor. ReLoc and Clausal Computing build navigation systems that keep working when satellite positioning is jammed, and Distance Technologies in Helsinki makes 3D displays for vehicle windscreens.
Getting a job in the industry
On 23 October the companies in this article had more than 200 open roles in Finland between them, and the Defence Forces had about 15 of their own on the state jobs site valtiolle.fi, all open only to Finnish citizens. ICEYE's openings in Finland, about 90 of them, include engineers for the radar electronics and flight software of its satellites and technicians who build them. Patria's include a software architect in Tampere for a project on an AI-controlled radio and antenna for unmanned systems. The staffing company Wellpack is recruiting vehicle assemblers and metal workers for Sisu Auto, and 61N Solutions in Tampere, which builds information systems for defence authorities, has openings for software, hardware, data and DevOps engineers. Skydio, the US drone maker, opened its first European research site in Tampere in 2025 and is hiring for its camera team there. Open roles at the companies on our board are on the Finland jobs page.
ICEYE, ReOrbit and NestAI advertise their roles in English. At Patria, Insta and the shipyard in Rauma, most of the job ads open in October were written only in Finnish, even where the job title was in English. EU citizens need no residence permit and register their stay if it lasts more than 3 months. Specialists from outside the EU with a job offer can apply for their first residence permit through the Finnish Immigration Service's fast track, which aims to decide within 2 weeks. Many roles also need a security clearance, carried out by Supo, the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service, or by the Defence Command for work linked to the Defence Forces. The employer applies for it during hiring, with the candidate's written consent, so you do not need a clearance to apply. A routine check by Supo usually takes about a month, while EY notes that some clearances in the Nordic countries take more than a year.
Organisations to know
| State | |
| Finnish Defence Forces | Announced an innovation unit in February 2026 to work with companies and researchers |
| Defence Forces Logistics Command | Procurement and logistics for the Defence Forces |
| Funding | |
| Business Finland | €75 million for defence and dual-use (civilian and military) projects in 2025 |
| Tesi | Also invested in ICEYE and IQM, €35 million in the NATO Innovation Fund |
| Finnish Defence House | Founded in 2025 to set up new defence startups, 5 so far |
| Accelerators | |
| NATO DIANA | Accelerator at VTT in Espoo, 6G test centre in Oulu |
| DEFINE | Defence innovation network, expanding to 6 cities |
| ESA BIC Finland | Up to €90000 for space startups, at Aalto Startup Center |
| City programmes | |
| Enter Espoo | More than 100 dual-use companies in its Defence Tech Hub in Otaniemi |
| Business Tampere | Head of defence, dual-use programme until 2028 |
| BusinessOulu | DefTech North helps small firms enter defence until mid-2027 |
| Business Turku | Security and dual-use programme since January 2026, starting with maritime and autonomous systems |
| Associations | |
| PIA | Just under 300 member companies |
| FISC (Kyberala ry) | About 100 cyber security companies, with a defence and security working group |
| Digital Defence Ecosystem | More than 60 companies and research groups |
| Research | |
| VTT | State research centre, research framework with the Defence Forces to 2030 |
| Training | |
| JYVSECTEC | Cyber range in Jyväskylä that runs national cyber security exercises |
| Patria and Millog | Summer trainees and thesis students every year |
| Events | |
| SecD-Day | Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre, 2 to 3 February 2027 |
| DECOI × Borderland | Investor summit with defence startup pitches by FiBAN and Borderland Europe, Helsinki, 17 November |
| Slush | Helsinki, 18 to 19 November |
| Defence Tech Meetup Helsinki | Run by BSV Ventures and Millog with partners |
